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The weekly update of the streaming audio industry, from RAIN News. THIS WEEK: Two podcast funding deals; the new Spotify; Pandora acquires more metrics; MixRadio breaks loose Continue Reading
Yesterday, we briefly reported on the contract between Sony and Spotify that was leaked online earlier in the week. We learned today that the International Music Managers Forum used the contract lead as a catalyst for an open letter to the European Commission in an effort to demand more transparency in digital deals. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Sony/Spotify contract leaked (then removed); another songwriting exec critiques safe harbor laws. Continue Reading
At today’s Spotify Event, held in the company’s New York office, CEO Daniel Ek and other senior leaders announced and demonstrated new features that will roll out in updated apps starting today. There are three main parts of Spotify’s announcement. “Life with Spotify will never be the same,” CEO Daiel Ek said. Continue Reading
Starbucks, which has a long history as a music purveyor within its larger mission of caffeinating the world, today announced a partnership with on-demand music service Spotify. The alliance is trumpeted as a “First-of-its-kind music ecosystem.” Continue Reading
The role and value of free listening to on-demand services (freemium) has been under scrutiny for months. Industry finances might support the logic of arguments that freemium should be limited. But is that strategy near-sighted? Continue Reading
Digital Music News is reporting that Spotify may place some restrictions on its freemium listening tier. Unnamed sources have told that site that the free, ad-supported access could be limited to just three months under a new proposal. This is the type of change that labels and publishers have been pressuring the streaming service to make, and the leaders at Universal and Sony seem to be the driving force behind the rumored proposal. Continue Reading
Research company CivicScience probed the preferences and psychographics of Spotify and Pandora users to sketch a detailed image of how they differ. Using widely distributed web-bases surveys that yielded over 8,000 replies, CivicScience sought to understand demographic and behavioral differences. Continue Reading
Spotify’s 2014 earnings include higher revenue, and wider losses, compared to a year ago. The financial news is coupled with rumors of a new angle for Spotify’s business — video. Continue Reading
This was an eventful week, and RAIN News readers told us, through their article choices, what the most important topics were. Call it RAIN News “Share of Eye.” Continue Reading
adStream is an ad-watch journal of interesting commercial sightings in streaming audio.
Spotify Free, the sometimes controversial ad-supported music service, advertises Spotify Premium in an interesting way: when the listener watches a 30-second commercial, the next 30 minutes are ad-free. Continue Reading
In what should be placed firmly in the rumor folder, technology site The Verge is reporting that Apple is pressuring music labels in their Spotify negotiations, and the U.S. Department of Justice is monitoring the situation. Continue Reading